Monday, May 7, 2012

Rocky Mountain Brewery takes gold, silver at World Beer Cup

In another feather in the cap of Colorado Springs' brewery scene, Rocky Mountain Brewery — the small outfit near Powers Boulevard owned by Duane Lujan — won gold and silver in the fruit beer category, for Eat a Peach and Da' Yoopers, respectively, at Saturday's World Beer Cup in San Diego.

Lujan was unavailable for comment when we called this morning, but he responded on Facebook to one well wisher: "Thanks Matt, you know how hard we work."

Impressive it is, too. Along with the Great American Beer Festival, which is only open to national breweries, the Earth-wide World Beer Cup is one of the preeminent brew competitions. This year's featured 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers in 95 style categories.

"It's called 'the Olympics of Beer Competition' for good reason," says Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, in a news release. "The event brings together great brewers from all corners of the globe. Plus, the awards are highly regarded. A brewer who wins a World Beer Cup gold award knows that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world."

The three winners for small, mid-size and large brewing companies were Brauerei Michael Plank in Germany; Firestone Walker Brewing Co., which recently debuted in Colorado Springs; and global purveyor of pretty gross beers AB InBev, respectively. (See the Denver Business Journal for other Colorado winners.)

As for our hometown heroes, we can tell you from experience that both brews are incredible examples of fruit made liquor, though neither exactly resemble malted beer. We've previously sworn you could taste the fuzz on the golden Eat a Peach, while Da' Yoopers is wonderfully like guzzling tart cherry-pie filling itself. Congrats to all involved.